Little Things That Mean A Lot

This is a little, often insignificant, member of the insect family known as a pine beetle.  As this picture illustrates, the largest of these beetles is only 1/3 inches in length, about the size of a grain of wheat.  Most of the time, the pine beetle mates and lays its eggs in weaker, sickly trees, actually improving the overall health of a large forest.  It also provides a food source for Wood Peckers, and other grub feeders.  The trees that are attacked are killed by a combination of the beetle and its larvae feeding on its core, and by a blue colored fungi the beetle introduces into the tree.  The thing is, a tree killed by the pine beetle, while damaged on the inside, will not show outward signs that it is dead until about nine months after the beetles have done their damage.  By that time, the offspring of the beetle have moved on to other trees.  In protected, overgrown forests, like those I just visited near Grand Lake, Colorado, this has led to an epidemic infestation.  Literally millions of acres of forest- whole mountain sides- now look like this.  

Or like this, because the only way for the forest to recover is to remove the dead trees, so that the “baby” trees (as my daughter likes to call them) have access to the resources they need to grow. Isn’t it amazing that something so small and common, a natural part of the forests ecosystem, often fairly innocuous, if left unchecked can become such a source of devastation?  It seemed a perfect illustrative example of the things I had been thinking about during my scripture chain journeys brought about by considering Isaiah’s words upon seeing the Lord,

 “Woe is me! I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine yes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”  (Isaiah 6:5)

Now mind you, Isaiah’s reaction, while sobering, was of a completely different sort than, say, Alma the younger ‘s or Saul’s (Paul) upon seeing, not the Lord himself, but a mere angelic messenger.   Both Alma and Saul received their visits to receive extensive course correction, and they suffered keenly both in body and spirit.  But Isaiah was already striving to walk the path of the Lord. That is why Isaiah’s reaction is so sobering. And the Lord’s response so joyously hopeful. 

The sobering part is considering for myself what it might feel like to stand in the presence of the Lord.  Isaiah’s reaction illustrates what Alma, after tasting it for himself, taught about what it means to stand in the presence of pure light and truth so that we see things, including our own condition, as they really are:

Then if our hearts have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word, insomuch  that it has not been found in us, then will our state be awful, for then we shall be condemned. For our words will condemn us, year, all our works will condemn us, our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence.  But this cannot be; we must come forth and stand before him in his glory… and acknowledge… that he is just in all his works, and that he is merciful unto the children of men, and that he has all power to save every man that believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance.  (Alma 12:13-15 Also see Alma 36:12-13 for Alma’s description of his experience.)

Obviously Isaiah did not find the presence of the Lord so unbearable that he wanted to be buried at the bottom of a rock pile.  In fact, he is soon so confident in the Lord’s presence that he volunteers to be the Lord’s messenger.  The phrase he uses to answer the Lord’s call, “here I am, send me,” tell us a lot.  Isaiah was a learned man, he knew what that phrase meant.  That it had been used pre-mortally by the one who would come as the Messiah. (Abraham 3:27)  And that it meant he wasn’t just going on a mission or receiving  a calling that would end during his mortal life; his life would be wholly committed to being the Lord’s messenger and representative to His people, just as Moses’s and Abraham’s were. (Genesis 22:7, Exodus 3:4)

Considering those things, I found it particularly compelling to consider what it was that did trouble Isaiah, and made him unconfident and scared, as he stood in the Lord’s presence- his “unclean lips.”    The word used for lips in Hebrew is also sometimes translated and “language” or “speech.”  And this is where the image of those little beetles destroying literally millions of acres of forests tied with Isaiah’s lament and with what James, in the New Testament, writes about how we use our relatively little tongues and  the little words we think and say each day.  He uses the idea of a rudder on a ship, so small in comparison to the total bulk of the ship, and yet the way that rudder is turned can control which destination a very large ship will reach. (James 3:1-3)  He also tells us how we can become perfect before the Lord:

For all of us make many mistakes. If someone does not make any mistakes when he speaks, he is perfect and able to control his whole body.(James 3:2 American Standard Version)

So in one scripture is Isaiah, a faithful, righteous man who, when standing in the light of the Lord recognizes he still makes mistakes when he speaks, and in another James telling us that if we have righteous control of our tongues, we can become perfect.  It would seem that coming to understand and avoid what the Lord considers “mistakes” when we speak is a sure way to make progress towards becoming a confident student in the Lord’s presence.  Being a perfect teacher, the Lord has given instruction on that very thing:

“Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish they thoughts unceasingly ; then shall they confidence wax strong in the presence of God. (Doctrine & Covenants 121:45)

Breaking the Lord’s instruction down into parts turned out to be most illuminating.  First, let’s look at the word “bowels.”  Most of us now associate that word with our intestines, especially the lower part.  However, that limited connotation is fairly modern.  Even today, if someone said “the bowels of the earth,” we would know they were most likely talking about the inner most part of the earth, and not about the earth having intestines.  That is a lot closer to the way “bowels” is used in scriptures that are giving gospel instruction. Literally it means “That which is deep within.”  Hence the whole area from neck to hips, where the vital organs reside, is, in the scriptural sense, the bowels. 
   
In addition this particular study did a lot to help me see what the Lord was teaching with the instructions he gives for sacrifices under the Mosaic Law.  The internal organs, with their fat, are completely burned on the altar of sacrifice.  Seeing the significance of that requirement meant recognizing and suspending the the idea of that the body is separate from the mind, or rational thought, which came with Greek philosophy.  Although you can’t miss the fact that conscious thoughts are organized in the brain, most ancient cultures believed that the seat, or origin, of all feelings, and both unconscious and conscious thought, was what we would today call the vital organs.  So the spirit or soul of man was inseparably connected to the state of his vital organs. The most important of these was the heart.

In the Old Testament two words are used for heart. The first is the most common.  It is the Hebrew word for the physical organ we call the heart and it literally means “the authority within.”  It is used like we commonly use mind or brain.  Thus, “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Psalms 23:7)

The other word means “something enclosed” and a more technical translation would be “internal organ”, often it is used for “kidney” or “liver.”   It is associated with feelings, so translating it “heart” comes closer to helping us understand the intention of the passage.  There is a word used only to refer to the “kidney”, and that is the one used in Leviticus when describing how blood sacrifices were to be performed.  Interestingly, it is also used for “reins” as in Jeremiah 17:10:  “I the Lord search the hearts (the authority within) and the reins (kidneys- which come from roots literally meaning “tamed for the yoke” or “complete”).

 So, in addition to the sacrifices signifying the atoning sacrifice of the savior, the way the sacrifice was offered was to teach Israel their part- “a broken and contrite heart.” ( Psalms 51:17 )  This sacrifice was offered to the Lord, as Hosea reminded Israel only a few years before Isaiah began to prophesy, by “tak(ing) with you words, and turn to the Lord; say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips.”  (Hosea 14:2, And yes, the word there is “calves” as in young cattle- a clear reference to the sacrifices performed under the Mosaic Law.)

Isn't it interesting that what the Lord says will make us confident in his presence focuses on the internal talking we do to ourselves - “let(ting) (that which is deep within)our bowels be filled with charity and let(ting) virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly.”  After all, nothing has ever passed my lips, nor have my hands ever done an action, but what it has been part of my feelings and thoughts first. 

Which brings us back to the boundary, or threshold (and yes the word for doorway or threshold is related to the word used for lips by Isaiah and Hosea) through which what is deep inside us most often passes to those around us.  Christ taught:

There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him; but those things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man, that proceedeth out of his heart….whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man in cannot defile him; because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught…that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts… All evil things come from within and defile a man.  (Mark 7:15-23 also Matthew 15:)

You might notice that I didn’t quote that reference in entirety.  In there is a long list of the evils that can come out of the heart – and I’m not trying to downplay the reality of murder, lying, stealing. I just want to emphasize how what Christ taught here has great import to everyone.  One thing that helped me see the personal application was the incident that initiated the discussion.  In Mark 7:2 it says the Pharisees were intentionally joining along with those who came to hear Christ teach for one purpose- to see if they could “find fault” with him. They found it- he didn’t wash his hands before eating. (See Matthew 15 for a parallel account.)   In Luke 6:7 it describes their outlook as watching him “that they might find accusation against him.”  Later in that chapter Christ teaches:

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.  Judge not , and ye shall not be judged; condemn not and ye shall not be condemned; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven…Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they both not fall into a ditch?...And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceives not the beam that is in thine own eye. (Luke 6:36-41)                                                                                                                     Now if that quote seemed somewhat familiar, but different, it is because we most often quote the more lengthy and detailed account found in the Sermon on the Mount.  But I love the way Luke’s account makes it clear that it is the “beam” of being critical and accusing others that causes the blindness.  Surely it is not a coincidence that Satan means “the accuser.”  And “the temptations of the (accuser)…blindeth they eyes and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men.” (1 Nephi 12:17)

And that is the greatest tragedy of thought habits that arise from an accusing heart; the blindness doesn’t stop with not seeing others clearly.  Our accusations ultimately are accusation of God- of his plan, of him giving others too much agency, of his character for not being good enough to give us the good things we asked for, and so on.  Just like it did for the Pharisees’ when Christ walked and a performed vivid, visual miracles among them, an accusing heart blinds us so we can’t see truth when it is right in front of our eyes.  Even if we don’t voice the accusations, as we carry them in our hearts, they blind us spiritually- killing from the inside out the way the pine beetles kill trees. 

And yet, we live in a world where there is hurt, injustice, as well as others accusing us. So I think it a beautiful treasure that Matthews’s record intertwines the parallel quote about what defiles a man with the parable of the blind leading the blind, with one important addition: He tells his disciples to “Let them (the accusers) alone.”  (Matthew 15:14)  I understand that to mean exactly what a modern apostle taught in more detail:

 As true disciples, our primary concern must be others’ welfare, not personal vindication. Questions and criticisms give us an opportunity to reach out to others and demonstrate that they matter to our Heavenly Father and to us. Our aim should be to help them understand the truth, not defend our egos or score points in a theological debate. Our heartfelt testimonies are the most powerful answer we can give our accusers. And such testimonies can only be borne in love and meekness…. By arguments and accusations, some people bait us to leave the high ground. The high ground is where the light is. It’s where we see the first light of morning and the last light in the evening. It is the safe ground. It is true and where knowledge is…. We are always better staying on the higher ground of mutual respect and love. (Robert D. Hales, “Christian Courage: The Price of Discipleship,” Ensign, November 2008)

It has been over 17 years since I was told in a very clear and personal revelation to stop fretting over a family member’s obviously wrong choice, to stop trying to argue them into admitting I was right, and instead concentrate on “get(ting) the beam out of (my) own eye.”  So some of things I’ve shared here have been a part of my thought processes for some time-thankfully- and some just got added to the ongoing effort.  I can’t begin to express my gratitude for the experience that started me on that path and I have no idea how far I have to go, but I love to look back and see the difference in how it feels to be alive and how precious, in general, I now find other people.  The changes happened little thought by little thought, slowly over time and at first I was more than a little discouraged at how this approach didn’t seem to take care of the problem!  I gratefully found encouragement in the Lord's response to Isaiah.  An angel of the Lord took a coal from the temple altar and laid it upon his mouth and said:
“Lo, this has touched they lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and they sin purged.”

There is some beautiful symbolism there, but I think this entry is past long enough.  So for the  purposes of this discussion, the most salient point is that the Lord did not say anything accusing or condemning.  Rather he showed him how, because he had done his part and offered a contrite heart, the atoning sacrifice of the Savior, typified in the temple sacrifices made on the altar, would do the rest.  We don’t have to do it alone. We weren’t meant to do it alone.  In fact, the atonement is there because we absolutely can’t do it alone.

The second salient point is that Isaiah believed the Lord.  Whatever doubts Isaiah had about himself, his faith in the Lord was firm. 
Whenever I think of Isaiah’s experience I think of Enos, another less than perfect soul who felt his imperfections keenly and went contritely to the Lord in prayer.  The Lord also accepts his offering and sends the message, “Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.”  Enos then writes “I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore my guilt was swept away.” (Enos 1:5-6)

A modern prophet expressed the same eternal principle this way:   Only when we truly accept the undeserved love of the Lord, do we begin to become free to love others the same way. (President Gordon B. Hinckly, Ensign, Nov. 2006, p. 115)

That “undeserved love of the Lord,” is also called “the pure love of Christ” or “Charity” in the Book of Mormon.  In fact, it is a scripture about charity that caused me to start thinking of the Book of Mormon as my “how to” book.  Whenever I think of that scripture I think of what happened for Isaiah, for Enos, for Nephi, for Peter- you get the idea- and how this scripture gives me the “how to” to have it happen for me.

“Wherefore, my beloved bretheren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ, that ye may become the sons(daughters) of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure.”  (Moroni 7:48)

From here on out, the words of Isaiah will deal with some of the most difficult, inhumane things that can happen in this life side by side with the infinite power of the atonement of Christ.  He was told straight out by the Lord how hard his mission would be- yet he moved forward in confidence because he had “this hope.”  Above all Isaiah has taught me that when it comes to the most important personal goal of this life- what I am becoming- never, never limit or doubt what the Lord can do.